MauledAgain

The Acting Director of the IRS Office of Taxpayer Burden has told the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs that unless the tax laws undergo fundamental reform taxpayer burden will increase. According to this this BNA report, Beth Tucker explained that in 2006, taxpayers will spend more than 6 and a half billion, yes, billion hours complying with the tax law.

Is it me or does it seem obvious that taxpayer burden will not be alleviated until the tax law is simplified and fixed? Does Congress need a hearing to make this determination? What’s next, hearings on whether the earth is flat? Yes, I know about the Flat Earth Society and I know there are people who think the tax law is child’s play. Those folks don’t enter into the equation. Not in my world, and hopefully not in yours.

The report also contained information from OMB showing that more than three-fourths of the compliance burden imposed by the federal government is on account of taxation. Wow. Considering all the other reporting requirements, from SEC filings to passport applications, from federal loan guarantee applications to background check, I would not have guessed it was that high. This is simply another reason that the tax law must be changed, and to do that the tax legislative process and the culture of tax break entitlement
must be altered.

As an example of the challenges faced by the IRS in its attempt to reduce taxpayer burden in the face of legislative piling on, Tucker pointed out that the recently enacted Energy Policy Act forced the IRS to make more than 600 changes to 107 tax forms, publications, and other products, and compelled the IRS to invent seven new tax forms. Am I surprised? No. I predicted this, a little more than a year ago.

And so the Congress that made the mess is now holding hearings to find out that there is a mess and why there is a mess. I’ll make it easy for Congress. Call me. I can answer the question in 15 seconds and give you a solution in 30. You won’t like it.

My post earlier this week, In Tax and Physics, Zero is Not Nothing, brought a response from Elaine Soost that touches on some additional aspects of the issue I had not, but should have, considered:

Prof. Maule -

ROFL at your latest blog. I would add the following –

Anyone who doesn’t understand the zero = positive – negative or the matter/anti-matter concept probably hasn’t ever reconciled a bank account, let alone participated a financial audit. The net difference in the ending balance per the bank statement and that per your checkbook may only be a few dollars, but it’s most likely comprised of a variety of DRs and CRs. The best example seared in my memory happened on a financial audit. A staff accountant was supposed to review the client’s bank reconciliation. He neglected to focus in on the fact that say a $10 mil outstanding DR should have hit an expense while a $9 mil outstanding CR item should have hit A/R. He considered the net difference in the reconciliation to be "immaterial", yet the various correcting entries had material effect on specific accounts.

Elaine also recalls another person who did not understad that small entries ought not be ignored on audit because they could hide much larger offsetting items, any of which could be very significant.

In a follow-up email, Elaine wondered if the difficulty for people trying to grasp the concept is that the components of zero or some other amount in the partnership context are hypothetical. I don't think so. Consider, for example, gain on the sale of contributed property. Splitting partnership gain of $60 into gain of $80 and loss of $20 reflects the actual pre-contribution gain of $80 and post-contribution loss of $20, both of which are very real. The numbers, it seems to me, are merely representations of the underlying concepts, and perhaps those are what baffle the folks who struggle with the splitting of an aggregate number into the two components that formed it.

In response to my posts about the blocking of Blogspot blogs by India and China, a long-time (well, in blog years) reader sent this message to me:

Jim,

It seems that the government of India has removed the blocks from blogs that were established as you described a couple of days ago. Maybe China will follow suit.

And he sent a link to this story.

I must say that was a quick resolution of an inadvertent and ill-advised move. Welcome back to my readers in India.

The other day I passed along a report that MauledAgain, and all other Blogspot blogs, have been censored in India. Now comes an email from my son, who is in Beijing working for a law firm, that MauledAgain and all other Blogspot blogs are blocked in that country.

You'd think the leaders of the People's Republic of China would want their citizens to read my more than occasional criticism of American tax policy. Maybe they just don't believe that America permits its citizens to speak out. Or perhaps they are fond of American tax policy. After all, think of all the economic good it has done for China's economy.

The government of India and internet service providers in India have managed to block folks in India from reading MauledAgain. Yes, there are at least three people in that nation who check in to read what I'm writing. And now, they can't.

Why?

According to this report, the government of India wanted to block access to one particular blog in the wake of the Mumbai train bombings, as further explained here. The internet service providers took the quick route, and blocked all of blogspot rather than the particular blog in question. Of course, I don't understand the point of blocking a blog. I prefer to see what others are thinking and writing rather than forcing them underground and into encrypted messaging.

I suppose the folks running the internet service providers in India will figure out how to fix this problem. If not, explains how to get around the block. The problem is that my readers in India cannot get to MauledAgain to access this link.

So spread the word. Pass the link along via email so people in India can resume reading blogs on blogspot. This nation might have a trade deficit in exporting goods but it surely can export First Amendment concepts. For all that India is and wants to be, its government needs to advise the internet service providers that overkill in response to a request is no less ill-advised than the initial request.

My post last Friday referencing a comparison between the laws of tax with the laws of physics brought to mind something I put into my "blog it someday" folder. Is it possible to create something from nothing, in a tax sense, without breaking any rules? That proviso is designed to exclude the fraudulent actions of people who create earned income credits for themselves when they lack the requisite income, and similar schemes.

The issue comes up in Partnership Taxation, the course sometimes described as the "quantum physics" of the Graduate Tax Program. Be aware that in the general J.D. program, tax is described as the quantum physics of law school. It's not just the intellectual similarities. Just as quantum physics is ever present in the cosmos and creation, so, too, tax is ever present in the law. There’s no escaping either one.

When a partnership interest is transferred through sale or by reason of death, the transferee partner’s adjusted basis in the partnership interest reflects purchase price or fair market value, respectively, whereas the partnership’s adjusted basis in its assets, and the transferee partner’s share of that adjusted basis, reflects the partnership’s historical experience with the assets, including purchase, contribution, and depreciation. To make things easier to describe, the partner’s adjusted basis in the partnership interest often is called "outside basis" and the partnership’s adjusted basis in its assets often is called "inside basis." Usually, but not always, outside basis does not equal the partner’s share of inside basis.

That discrepancy can cause all sorts of problems, such as the transferee partner being taxed on income already taxed to the transferor partner. To alleviate this imbalance, the tax law permits the partnership to elect, and in some special situations requires the partnership to make, a basis adjustment. The adjustment is the difference between outside basis and the partner’s share of inside basis. If outside basis equals the partner’s share of inside basis, the amount of the adjustment is zero. If the election is not made and the mandatory adjustment situation does not apply, there is no adjustment.

What’s the use of a zero adjustment? It’s zero, it’s nothing? No. A zero adjustment can be split into positive and negative components to apportion to each partnership asset, whereas if there is no adjustment, there is nothing, and thus nothing to apportion to partnership assets. In other words, there is a difference between zero and nothing. That is a rule of physics. It shows up in computer programming, where zero and nul are different concepts.

Some students are boggled by this idea. They consider zero and nothing to be the same thing. "There’s no difference," one of them once argued, "between having zero in my wallet and having nothing in my wallet. Either way, I’m broke." Yes and no. Even with money and financial assets it is possible to be worth zero and yet own assets, because there would be an offsetting liability.

So, when an adjustment of zero is apportioned into positive and negative components, it appears to be a matter of creating something from nothing. It’s not. It’s the creation of things from zero. Zero is not nothing.

By the time the students reach the part of the course where they meet this basis adjustment (there are two others), they already have experienced the "something from zero" concept. Twice. When I get to the second and third instance of the concept I ask them to identify the previous instance or instances where we encountered the concept. Some can answer. Others, thinking that a person can cram the night or half week before the exam, stare as if they were sitting in the classroom for the first time. It’s a wonderful example that I use to pound home the necessity of assimilating and learning as the semester progresses.

For those curious about the two previous instances, here’s a very brief explanation. When a partnership sells property contributed by a partner, and uses the remedial method to allocate the gain or loss, it is possible for the partnership to recognize zero gain and yet allocate $x of gain to the contributing partner and $x of loss among all the partners. Of course, the partnership might recognize, say, $50 of gain and end up allocating $87 of gain to the contributing partner and $37 of loss among all partners. Similarly, a partner who sells a partnership interest for an amount equal to his or her adjusted basis in the partnership interest, the partner appears to recognize zero gain or loss, but because an aggregate approach is applied, that zero will be split between ordinary income or loss and offsetting capital loss or gain. Again, a selling partner might recognize, say, $50 of gain and end up recognizing $87 of ordinary income and $37 of capital loss.

When tax students, or even J.D. law students, struggle with these concepts, even after being guided, tutored, and repetitively drilled, I begin to wonder if their minds have been honed sufficiently to do the sort of reasoning that is pervasive in tax, and even law. I try to get the point across by using an example of, say, 50 cookies being turned into 87 cookies and 37 anti-matter cookies. I dare not use loaves and fishes, for I might upset the theology department. There are students unaware of the concept of anti-matter. Seventeen or more years of education and they haven’t encountered the concept of antimatter? What have they been doing? I use railroad marshaling yard analogies to describe what section 736 prescribes for liquidating distributions, and I get even more stares. I’ve been fearful of asking if any students thing food is grown in grocery stores.

So there you have it. Tax folks can generate something from zero. But not from nothing.

Recently a tax practitioner asked the ABA-TAX list subscribers for input on the question of how long a tax practitioner should retain client tax records. The bottom line is that tax pratitioners do not want to be the eternal storage bin for their clients' data, especially after the practitioner-client professional relationship has ended. Practitioners who are subject to regulation by professional societies, such as the AICPA, or state law, must maintain records for certain minimum periods, but not forever.

Why the reluctance to retain the records forever? Storage requires space and space costs money. It's called rent. There also is the concern that clients become dependent on the practitioner rather than taking ownership of their fiscal affairs.

There are things clients need to understand about record retention, and tax practitioners should, and usually do, tell their clients about these concerns.

First, the client needs to keep duplicate copies because in the event of fire, computer storage media failure, or other disaster, a client who relies on the practitioner to take sole responsibility for retention will be in serious trouble when calamity befalls the practitioner's office and the IRS happens to come calling on the client.

Second, when the practitioner does choose to remove old records from his or her files, the client should accept the opportunity to collect them from the practitioner. Otherwise, the client's backup, in the event calamity strikes the client's home, will disappear. The client then needs to store the duplicate set of records in a place different from the place where the primary set is maintained.

Third, clients need to understand the danger in believing that after three (or four, or five, or six) years records can be tossed. That is true of records with no tax significance, such as grocery receipts for food the purchase of which did not justify a deduction. What is important to remember is that many records seemingly not connected with tax are tax records. The cost of the new roof will reduce gain on the sale of a home, and if the gain exceeds the section 121 exclusion amount, failure to have the record of the roof work, and the likely impossibility of proving the cost, guarantees payment of tax that could have been avoided.

A little more than a year ago, I touched on this topic when commenting on Jack Bogdanski's Statute of Limitations expiration shredding party:

But, folks, go easy with the shredder. DON'T SHRED anything that has to do with what you've paid for assets, or to improve those assets, because those amounts become part of adjusted basis, which is used to compute gain or loss when the asset is sold. Likewise, don't shred any information about the value of inherited property when the decedent died, or the donor's adjusted basis in property received by gift. Hang onto those contractor's invoices for the addition built onto the home. Keep all those investment records showing dividends plowed back into the stock through a dividend reinvestment program.

My advice has not changed.

Back in 2004, in writing about the digitization of tax data, I explained

There also exists the question of archiving. In the digital world, what guarantee is there that the return will be accessible in the future? Fortunately, my previous year editions of Turbo Tax run on my almost-expired Windows 98 computer, including those that originally ran under Windows 95, and, goodness, MS-DOS!! Will these programs run on the XP computer that sits alongside the Windows 98 box (or the XP computer that will replace it)? I'll find out during the next month or two. In the meantime, because digital backup may mean nothing, I have consistently printed out the return and the supporting schedules. But at least it's one copy and not two.

Why the concern? Though some people don't hold onto their tax returns for more than say, 3 or 7 years, relying on the statute of limitations, I recommend holding onto all returns, if for no reason other than to maintain records of basis and to guard against the strange day when the IRS claims a return from some years ago was not filed, which would open the statute of limitations, and which can be rebutted quite easily by providing a copy of the return. And what if a lender asks for copies of tax returns for the past three years? If not already in print format, they need to be printed. Will the XP computer run TurboTax for 2000? I think so.

I was wrong. Turbotax for pre-XP versions of Windows cannot be installed on XP systems. What hasn't been printed is inaccessible other than through a Windows98 desktop, of which few remain. So my prediction, from the same post, of what lies ahead seems even more likely:

What may end up happening is that the returns will be "printed to disk" in something like a PDF format. PDF, I am assured by those in the computer industry closer to the action, will endure for decades. So perhaps I will be spending some time (when? ha ha) printing all my returns to PDF and making a CD that holds the entire batch.

For a world living in the information age, there surely is a serious information preservation problem. Is it like the marooned sailor in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, "Water, water, everywhere but not a drop to drink"?

Earlier this month, Ellen Aprill of Loyola Law School Los Angeles put a challenge to her tax teaching colleagues throughout the country. She noted that in his New York Times essay, Physics Awaits New Options as Standard Model Idles, Dennis Overbye wrote:

Unlike, say, in the tax code, however, in physics new laws are more elegant and economical than the ones they replace.

Ellen asked if "new tax laws less elegant and econmical than the ones they replace."

My reply was one of my shortest utterances: "Unquestionably. Imagine Congress legislating the laws of gravity." I then appended "Don't fall all over that one!"

Bad? Well, yes, the pun is. But tax legislation drafting leaves much to be desired, as do many of the policies generating the "new" rules of tax. It's not bad to point that out.

Andrew Mitchel, the tax chart designer to whom I referred last week in my Tax Chart Mania post, has reached beyond charts of cases and rulings to decision-making flowcharts. His first, Deductibility of Commuting / Transportation Costs, is a must for tax practitioners. It maps out the reasoning process to get from facts to results.

It would not be surprising to discover tax students grabbing hold of this chart and using it to answer exam or semester exercise questions. Too many students much prefer being given answers than being required to create decision charts. Guaranteed, Andrew learned more by designing this chart than those using it will learn by reading it. That's why I give my students a few charts early in the semester, to show them the goal that they should have, namely, learning how to think through a problem rather than look up (or receive) an answer. Many students are unhappy with this challenge, preferring to listen and repeat rather than solve problems.

I think I will ask Andrew for permission to hand out to my students an amended version of his chart, with one or two errors deliberately introduced. I will then ask the students not for the correct version, because that simply would reward those who can find things on the Internet, but for an explanation of WHY the identified errors are errors. THAT is how lawyers and tax practitioners learn to think.

One of the charts I recommend students create in Partnership Taxation is a matrix of the allocations regulations. Now there, if done properly, is a formidable chart.

A report issued late last month by Citizens for Tax Justice explains how the 99 percent of Americans not among the top one percent in terms of income are worse off under the last five years' tax cuts. Thanks to Paul Caron's TaxProf Blog for clueing me in to the issuance of this report.

The report focuses on the fact that the tax cuts enacted during the past five years have been funded with borrowed dollars. The interest on that debt compounds the cost. By comparing the average tax cut for the top one percent with the average increase in the national debt per person in that income cohort, and by doing the same for other income cohorts, the report determines that only the top one percent have received a net benefit. It measures the benefit at $30,352 per family member in the top cohort. It measures the detriment for the other cohorts at $7,166, with the highest detriment applicable to those with incomes greater than 60% of all taxpayers and less than 20% of all taxpayers. In other words, the middle class takes the biggest hit.

As the report confesses, one can debate how to allocate the increase in national debt among taxpayers. Rest assured, though, that if tax and fiscal policies continue on their present course, the increased debt won't be financed by the upper echelons. That is the story of taxes and finances throughout history.

When I was a youngster, I narrowly missed winning a contest that required the children to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar. Had I been closest, I would have won the jar of jelly beans. By coming in as a runner-up, I won a board game called "Down You Go." It taught me about words. Hindsight tells me that the contest was one of those times I won by not winning.

So perhap a similar contest can be designed for the exploits of TaxChartGuy, the sobriquet I have pinned on Andrew Mitchel. We'll substitute his web site for the jar, and tax charts for the jelly beans. So how many tax charts can be extracted from the tax law? Not having come up with a prize for winner or runner-up, I'm not sure whether it's best to be closest. But I will venture that the total will someday cross one thousand.

About a week and a half ago, Andrew posted another thirty, yes, you read that correctly, thirty charts. Don't forget that a little more than a month ago, Andrew dished up fifty, yes, fifty new charts. From tentative first-step beginnings, a chart here and several there, to their appearance by the dozen or dozens, I suppose if I wanted to be sarcastic I'd note that he's slipping. From fifty to thirty would make day traders panic. Fear not. No panic required. These charts are appearing at an enormous monthly rate.

The posting of the latest batch generated this announcement:

Today we uploaded 30 new tax charts. We now have over 260 tax charts.

The tax charts can be found:

By Topic: www.andrewmitchel.com/topic.html

In Alpha-Numeric Order: www.andrewmitchel.com/sitemap.html

By Dated uploaded: www.andrewmitchel.com/chart_postings.html

Today's charts include:

Section 338 Election Examples

1. QSP - Busted 351 (Via IPO) is a Section 338(h)(3) Purchase
2. QSP - Related Person Acquisition
3. No QSP - Shares Constructively Acquired Prior to 12 Month Period
4. No QSP - Shares Constructively Acquired Prior to 12 Month Period
5. QSP - Acquisition Date for Tiered Targets
6. QSP - Purchase, Redemption, & Purchase
7. QSP - Purchase & Redemption
8. No QSP - Redemption & Purchase
9. QSP - Purchase & Related Person Redemption
10. Purchase & Sale of Target
11. Purchase of Target & Sale of Target's Subsidiary
12. Post-QSP Merger of Target
13. Section 1248 Gain on QSP of a CFC With Gain Recognition Election
14. Section 1248 Gain on QSP of a CFC Without Gain Recognition Election
15. Creeping Acquisition of CFC (U.S. Sellers)
16. Creeping Acquisition of CFC (Foreign Seller)
17. 338 Election - "One-Day" Tax Return
18. 338 Election - Short Year Tax Return
19. 338(h)(10) Election For Some But Not All Targets
20. Pre-Sale Distribution and QSP

Sales of Controlled Foreign Corporations (CFCs)

21. U.S. Corporate Seller of CFC
22. U.S. Corporate Seller of CFC - Pre-Sale Distribution
23. U.S. Corporate Seller of CFC - 338(g) Election
24. U.S. Corporate Seller of CFC - 338(g) Election & Subpart F Income
25. U.S. Individual Seller of CFC - Qualified Foreign Corporation (QFC)
26. U.S. Individual Seller of CFC - QFC and 338(g) Election
27. U.S. Individual Seller of CFC - QFC, 338(g), & Subpart F Income
28. U.S. Individual Seller of CFC - Non-QFC
29. U.S. Individual Seller of CFC - Non-QFC and 338(g) Election
30. U.S. Individual Seller of CFC - Non-QFC, 338(g), & Subpart F Income

Aha, Andrew is more than one-fourth of the way to a thousand. By the end of the decade we could be looking at several thousand, if he keeps cranking them out in monthly batches of thirty and fifty.

Here comes some easy blogging. I'll quote myself, updating my comments to reflect last month's chart production:

As an advocate of the value of visual depictions of the facts underlying tax issues, I salute Andrew's efforts. If you haven't read my previous accolades for Andrew's charts (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here), here, here, and here, take a look.

Andrew welcomes comments on his charts. Visit his site, and contact him through that portal. There are three ways to access the overall chart collection:

By Topic
Alpha-numeric order
Date uploaded

So when do the TaxChartGuy tee-shirts and mugs become available? When they do, buy two of each, one to wear or use, and the other to save as a collector's item, for when chart #1,000 shows up. Good work, Andrew. Keep going.

It is Independence Day, a time to celebrate not only the freedom earned more than two centuries ago and the values underlying the rights for which so many fought, but also to remember the sacrifices made over the years by those who understood that freedom is not free. Not surprisingly, July 4 is a time when some folks try to persuade us that there is no true freedom unless and until there are no taxes.

Without taxes there can be no freedom. Freedom does not come cheaply. The price of freedom is high. Why? Because it is valuable. Very valuable. In some ways, priceless.

Take away all taxes, and no one will be free. No one.

The American Revolution was not fought to eliminate taxes. It was fought for several reasons, one of which was the idea that taxation should be imposed not by fiat but through representation. Now there is an idea that has been twisted in a venal sort of way. Representation in tax decisions must be equal and not favored to the wealthy. It is in this respect that deep reform is required. Abolition of all taxes does not resolve this problem.

Happy Independence Day to all.

During an interview on a news program this morning (not sure which one), Gov. Corzine of New Jersey explained why the State of New Jersey was closed, as a practical matter, for business. Unable to reach agreement on a state budget, the governor and legislature have entered into stalemate.

The issue is simple. The amount collected (in taxes, fees, and other revenues) must equal expenditures. At the moment, expenditures exceed revenues. The solution is to raise taxes, cut expenditures, or do a little of both. Some want one or the other, but some want neither. Something ultimately will snap, and it won't be pretty.

Without going into gory detail, one significant problem is that a good chunk of the state is designated as a zone eligible for tax breaks. That's what happens when tax breaks are used as political tools and to make everyone happy. Of course, if every person on the planet is promised $1,000,000,000, something will go haywire.

It will be instructive to watch New Jersey try to dig itself out of the fiscal mess its politicians, currying favor with citizens demanding special treatment, have bestowed upon the people of the state. Why? It won't be long before the piper demands similar accounting at the federal level. And the consequences will be far more significant.

A reader, responding to my criticism of the tax break for timber offered as a sweetener to "persuade" member of Congress to vote for estate tax changes not otherwise palatable to them (A Tax Sweetener That Needs to be Cut Down and Turned to Mulch), noted:

Re: your comments on the "sweetener" added to the estate tax bill of lowering tax rates on certain gains from timber sales. I don't have the stats to prove it, but that could be a double whammy against "ordinary" US taxpayers, since the lumber companies often pay extraordinarily low rates for timber they're "allowed" to harvest from US property (BLM, National Forests, etc.) Perhaps that's why they feel they deserve a tax break as well, to compensate them for the extra gain they must recognize due to the low basis.

I'm no timber expert. As I promised the writer, I looked around the web, and from what I've found it appears that the timber industry is laden with controversy, theft, and artificially deflated bid prices. Take a look, for example, at the Field Guide to Timber Theft, and at the article, Cruel Twists Seize Timber Country.

So perhaps the folks angling for the timber tax break are trying to avoid the higher gain generated by lower basis. In that respect, they would remind me of the person who wins a lottery with a ticket received as a gift complaining about the tax rates on the winnings.

But even if the timber was purchased at fair market value, there still is no justification to reduce the taxes on timber sales but not on sales of lemonade, slippers, ballpoint pens, lawn mowing services, or haircuts. So my question remains, what's so special about timber that those who sell it deserve lower tax rates?

This morning's Philadelphia Inquirer story about Pennsylvania's governor signing into law the tax reform bill passed by the Pennsylvania legislature last week made this prediction: "the issue of property taxes will be front and center in this year's governor's race." I agree. There's no risk in this prediction. Soon after the signing, the governor's opponent in his re-election bid described what he claims is the governor's plan (it's not, it's a compromise between what the governor wanted and what the legislature was willing to do) as a "Band-Aid" and then trumpeted the alleged worthiness of his own plan.

The title I gave to my analysis of the recently enacted Pennsylvania tax reform legislation is very descriptive: New Pennsylvania Tax "Reform" Doesn't Add Up. So, too, is the caption for my discussion of the proposal presented by the governor's campaign rival: Taxation Swann Song Should Be Tackled for Loss.

Let's face it. Neither plan earns high marks because neither plan tackles (sorry) the core issues. Hence the generosity with the criticism. Yes, as my students say, I'm fair but demanding. So, too, should be the Commonwealth's taxpayers. Yet perhaps they are as much a part of the problem as of the solution. Why?

Consider what Chris Borick, director of Muhlenberg College's Institute of Public Opinion, said: "Voters are jaded now - I don't know that they believe that there is any person out with the magic bullet to this issue." Replace the word "person" with "politician" and he's absolutely correct. There are people "out here" who have a sensible fix, but they will struggle trying to sell it. Many, perhaps most, citizens want a tax plan that lowers their taxes and raises everyone else's taxes. But that approach is just as nonsensical as what the politicians offer. In fairness to the politicians, they offer what they think will sell to their constituents, who demand low taxes and high levels of government services.

Think about it. People want potholes filled, ambulances at the ready, playgrounds, parks, running trails, open space, clean air, flood protection, and a long list of other programs and benefits. Yet many people do not want to pay. They're special. They deserve a zero tax rate. But this won't work, and a genuine leader will say so, explaining why it is so. Leadership is more than currying favor. Leadership requires truth. And some courage.

Each program or benefit funded by state or local government needs to be identified and realistically priced. Those that ought to be funded through user fees need to be so identified. Those that benefit property, for example, fire protection, should be funded by a property tax. Those that benefit society generally, for example, education and public health, should be funded with an income tax, not a wage tax. Enough with the millionaire pensioners masquerading as poor folks trying to squeak by on a pension pittance and a few dollars of interest income.

This approach requires putting the common good above the narrow, self-focused orientation of the individual. It requires that enhancement of the common good can do more to enhance the individual than can the individual in isolation. It requires purging from the public mentality the sense of specialness that has been hammered into people's heads for far too long. If the politicians cannot or will not do so, who will? How the answer to this question plays out will forecast the fate of tax reform in Pennsylvania.